The Middle Ages bears little resemblance to the romances of chivalry that many of us read. Beautiful ladies, tournaments and noble warriors came complete with the Spanish Inquisition, whose executioners could make a person scream for a whole week. Here are just a dozen of the most sophisticated tortures in human history - and let's rejoice that we are lucky to live in a completely different time.
Sicilian bull
The ancient Greeks knew a lot about torture. One of the worst was the execution in a bronze sarcophagus cast in the shape of a bull. The victim was closed inside, and a fire was made under it. The sufferer was baked alive over low heat, screaming (a special system of pipes turned them into the roar of a bull) throughout the area.
Number
The popularizer of this gruesome execution was the Romanian prince, Vlad the Impaler. He put the Turks captured in battle on a sharpened wooden stake, which then rose vertically. Under his own weight, the unfortunate man crawled lower and lower until the stake penetrated the whole body through and through.
Promotional video:
Heretic's Fork
The torture device was a hoop, the opposite sides of which were decorated with sharp forks. The hoop was tightened around the victim's neck, forcing the person to constantly control the position of the head. Sleep threatened with inevitable death: in the end, tired people lost control over themselves and pointed thorns pierced the jugular vein.
Crucifixion
In some countries torture by crucifixion is practiced today, albeit in a milder version: the sufferer's hands are not nailed to a tree, but simply tied. A slow, painful and painful death became a real deliverance for a man hanging on the cross for several days.
Lead spray
A simple device was filled with molten lead. Typically, a sprinkler was used during the knockout stage. The master of torture dripped lead into the most vulnerable parts of the body - on the eye, for example.
Iron Maiden
An iron cabinet, the interior of which was studded with iron spikes. They were placed in such a way as to hit the secondary organs of the victim, dooming her to slow death in a confined space.
Rack
This seemingly simple device was considered the best way to knock out the readings the Inquisition needed. A person was tied on a wooden frame by the arms and legs, gradually stretching the limbs with a special collar. Sometimes the executioner was too zealous and then the hands of the unfortunate man simply came off during the torture.
Wheeling
The victim's limbs were tied to a large wooden wheel. The executioner crushed the joints with an iron hammer, trying not to kill the person ahead of time. Most often, this torture was applied to war criminals, arranging a whole performance that could last for hours. At the end of the "performance" the executioner simply left the unfortunate man still alive on the square, where birds of prey began to eat him.
Sawing
The cunning executioners guessed to hang the tortured person upside down so that the blood rushes to the head and keeps the person conscious. The victim's legs were stretched, with a two-handed saw, the fiends began to saw the victim in half. Sometimes the unfortunate man lived up to the moment when the saw teeth reached the heart.
Suspended quartering
In the Middle Ages, the British invented one of the most cruel tortures in human history. It was intended for those who dared to betray their native country. A potential spy was hung by the neck, but not to death. Having given a person his pleasure to feel the taste of eternity, the executioners removed him from a branch and laid him on a canvas, having previously tied his limbs to four horses. Having taken the necessary measures, the torture master castrated the convict, took out the entrails and burned them in front of him. In the end, the horses were allowed to gallop and the still living person was torn to pieces.